Tag Archives: Review

I recently acquired a couple of Rawlings synthetic broadswords from Purpleheart Armoury and thought that I would share my first impression of them with you.

When the box arrived I felt like a young boy at Christmas. I had been looking forward to these swords since the moment I ordered them. I have to say that my excitement was well founded.

Like most toys some assembly is required.

The swords are made up of four parts: blade, hilt, slide-on grips and pommel. The quality of the construction of each piece is quite good and nothing feels cheap in any way.

The first thing I noticed once the swords were assembled was how much they weighed. For a nylon sword it has an exceptionally good heft to it thanks to the metal rod than runs down the centre of the blade and through the handle to give the pommel something to attach to. This weight coupled with good balance and I was smiling like a Cheshire cat.

I only had a couple of minor issues with the swords at the beginning. Both of which related to the hilt.

My fist was the size of the hilt itself. I have hands that tend toward the large side to begin with and for practice I wear padded Kevlar re-inforced gloves so I need a pretty beefy hilt to get my hand into. Although not as large as I would like, the hilt is big enough to fit my gloved hand but there’s no room to spare. A slightly larger hilt would be nice.

Doesn't look too small does it?

No it's not Darth Vader.

The other issue I had with the hilt were its edges. As the hilt is molded nylon the edges are a bit sharp and can be uncomfortable on bare hands when they contact. Of course this ceases to be an issue when I put on a pair of gloves.

I said they were minor issues.

Seriously I had to come up with something to critique otherwise it wouldn’t be a very good review.

These swords are great!

I spent a half an hour the other night smacking them against a wooden pell pole because none of my friends were available and by the end I was euphoric. The weight and balance of these swords make throwing cuts almost effortless. The solid ‘whump’ as the sword hit the wood made me giddy (even now writing this I’m getting giddy again). I never felt like I was going to damage the sword no matter how hard I hit the pell.

The blades seem to stand up quite well against rough handling. After my short practice you could hardly tell that it had even been used. I’ll be interested to see what they will look like in a couple of months.

Eventually I was able to get an hour of time with a friend doing some drills to see how the swords handle. My pleasure at having bought these sword was not diminished at all. There was almost no glancing with hard parries and once again the weight of the swords made me forget that I wasn’t working with my metal backsword.

I can see why Rawling’s synthetic longswords have been all the rage among the Liechtenauer/Fiore groups.

At $62 plus S&H, taxes, etc. this is an amazing practice sword. I’m going to be using mine as much as possible over the next few months to see how it will hold up to use. Even so a replacement blade is only $40.

Do you have any experience with this or any of the other swords from Rawlings? If so, leave a comment below to let me know.